re: Ranking the SEC schools academically?

LSU is a Tier I institution with numerous Top Ten programs nationally: Veterinary Medicine, Petroleum Engineering, Hurricane Engineering/Meteorology, Internal Auditing, Entrepreneurial Studies,
Landscape Architecture, etc.
It also has one of the most renowned research facilities in the world - the Pennington Biomedical Research facility, and highly acclaimed MBA, Business, Music & Dramatic Arts, Law, Agribusiness, Geophysics, and all Engineering disciplines.
LSU has the prototype Cox Academic Center for Student-Athletes, lauded in the WSJ and NY Times as well as national and international Academic circles.
LSU is one of few highly rated research insitutes ranked in the Carnegie Very High Research consortium and is one of few land, sea, environmental, and space-grant institutions.

The ForeverLSU Campaign which kicked off at LSU's SesquiCentennial anniversary in 2010 has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and whose quality thrust will have LSU as one of the top public insitutions in the nation in this decade.